State Social Services Contracting: Exploring the Determinants of Effective Contract Accountability

This article examines the effectiveness of contract accountability in social service contracts. The analysis is based on five case studies of Kansas contracts for selected welfare, Medicaid, and foster care and adoption services. Results indicate the state has achieved moderate to high levels of accountability effectiveness, especially in terms of specifying social service contracts and selecting appropriate accountability strategies. However, accountability is undermined by the use of risk shifting, reliance on a system of multiple competing providers, and the adoption of new information technologies. These conclusions contradict the conventional wisdom, theory, and existing research on contracting.     

Common sense prevails in trade mark transfer dispute

The High Court of Justice has interpreted Article 17(2) of theCommunity Trade Mark Regulation, which provides that ‘[a]transfer of the whole of the undertaking shall include the transferof the Community trade mark’, in a commonsense mannerthat provides that the Community trade mark shall follow thetransferred business. The Court gave great weight to facts andcircumstances of the relevant transactions in giving effectto the transfer of the trade mark rights.     

“If You've Got Friends and Neighbours”: Constituency Voting Patterns for the UK Labour Party Leader in 2010

Most attention in British electoral studies has been paid to the pattern of voting for parties, with relatively little to that for individual candidates. In intra-party elections, however, candidates may perform better in some areas than others, illustrating V. O. Key's well-known “friends and neighbours” effect. This paper explores whether that was so at the election for the leader of the UK Labour party in 2010, expecting each of the five candidates to perform better in their own constituency and its environs and also with those constituency parties whose MPs supported their candidature. The results are in line with the expectations, especially for one of the candidates who ran an explicitly geographical campaign.     

Age‐Related Vulnerability to Lethal Craniocerebral Crush Injuries from Electrical Beds/Tables

Vulnerability to accidents characterizes the extremes of life for reasons that may be similar in each age group. Two cases are reported to demonstrate increased risks of entrapment and crushing injury involving the use of electrically controlled beds/tables. Case 1: A frail 98‐year‐old woman with a history of dementia suffered a lethal crush injury to her head when she fell out of bed and accidentally activated its lowering mechanism. Case 2: An 18‐month‐old girl suffered a lethal crush injury to her head when she became trapped under a lowered electric massage table. Common devices may be dangerous if individuals do not have the mental or physical capabilities to deal with them. The forensic assessment of such deaths involves an evaluation of the neurocognitive level and physical strength of the decedent as documented in previous clinical assessments, in addition to a careful examination of the structure and function of the bed/table.